Fingers, Fun and Flying

Laughing Lotus

59 W. 19^th St. 3^rd Floor

New York, NY 10011

212.414.2903

www.laughinglotus.com

On a recent Friday, I sat in the bright and cheerful rooms at Laughing Lotus waiting for Alison Cramer’s class to start. The mood was festive with the excitement of the weekend about to begin and I was ready to get my yoga on and start the weekend off right.

Students were greeting one another and chatting happily when Alison brought everyone into the present moment by changing the song to the unexpected 90’s hit “No Diggity” by Blackstreet. Many of us looked at each other smiling and several students started singing along and moving their heads to the beat. Yep, it was definitely Friday.

As the song came to an end, Alison shut the music down and authoritatively started class beginning the Kundalini chant, Sa-Ta-Na-Ma. As we chanted, we began a mudra touching our thumb to one of our four fingers for each syllable, starting with the pointer finger and moving across. I had a bit of trouble transitioning so quickly from the partyish-mood of Blackstreet to the seriousness of the chant and found myself wanting to giggle when I would envision my dancing peers just a few minutes back.

After 5 minutes of chanting, we moved into downward facing dog. Alison told us that the mudra we had just completed was meant to energize our hands and we should keep feeling that energy as we actively pressed our hands into the Earth. I had never really thought of mudras serving to energize the hands, but at that moment it made perfect sense, mudras are yoga poses for your fingers.

We soon came to stand facing the massive sunlit windows and the hip-hop music began again as we initiated our sun salutations. Alison reminded us that we always start practice by saluting the sun and I took a moment to appreciate that the true purpose of Surya Namaskara is not just to build heat in my body, but also to honor the warmth and life giving force of the sun.

We moved through several standing pose sequences with Alison encouraging us to chant our mantra during the more challenging holds. To culminate our heat building standing poses, Alison stabilized us with Eagle Pose. Soon after, we moved into a low lunge and she brought back the idea of the eagle as we interlaced our thumbs and reached our fingers towards the sky. She told us that, “our hands are like the wings of our body and we should let them fly”. I had never been to a yoga class where I thought so much about my hands.

Before I knew it, we were starting the cooling portion of the class with a twisted reclined pigeon (a new and interesting variation for me), that elicited a collective, blissful exhale from the class at large. As we turned onto our backs for Urdhva Danurasana, Alison once again caught us off guard (aka, brought us back to the present) by switching up the music genre, this time to oldies.

We wound down the class with some forward folds, where I took a moment to appreciate the depth of my Paschimottanasana, and a long-held boat, including 9 rounds of Sa-Ta-Na-Ma to keep us focused in the challenge. By this time I had long moved past my urge to giggle and was able to appreciate the use of mantra in our practice.

For our final pose, we took a much-needed cooling shoulder stand and then moved into Savasana where I truly felt light enough to fly, or at least attempt it.

Repeat Offender

I have to admit, I have recently been guilty of taking classes at studios I've previously visited, instead of going to explore new ones. While at the start of my journey it seemed like a great idea to always go out and try new places, I quickly realized this was not always going to be feasible. Between schedule conflicts, specific assignments and personal desire, I find myself more often than not, going to a place I have already been.

Initially I felt myself a bit of a failure for already returning to studios so early in my exploring and thus going against the self-imposed rules I had established for my blog posting. Then I took a moment to stop judging myself and see if I could find a positive side. I realized that while I may return to the same studios, I rarely return to the same teacher so besides possibly being in a familiar room, the class is entirely new to me.

More importantly I came to see that this is simply the natural path of my practice, which in turn effects the progression of this blog. I can make whatever rules I'd like for my blog and for my life in general, but everything changes. In order to live to my optimum potential, (something I've been thinking a lot about lately due to a recent yoga class, but more on that later) I need to be malleable enough to morph with the changes as they come and be aware and open to the opportunities these changes bring.

So after struggling to see the future path along which my blog would take, I've discovered that it isn't going to be a straight line from point A to point B, but more of a meandering, abstract line with no distinct beginning and no forseeable end.

With that in mind, stay tuned for some visits to some old favorites, some introductions to some new friends and a newly expanded definition of what defines a yoga class....